Eurochild: Delays in reforming childcare system causing abuse of child rights in Czech Republic
Due to the fragmentation of the childcare system in the country, a large number of children are being removed from their families and placed in institutions, says Eurochild member Second After
Second After, together with representatives from the civil society sector and NGOs working on human rights, sent an open letter to the Czech Prime Minister and Ministers for Labour and Social Affairs, Education, Health, and Human Rights, calling to fulfill their obligations and submit a clear concept for the unification of services for at-risk children by the end of this year, including draft legislation.
The letter points out that the Czech Republic is one of the last European Union countries to provide care for at-risk children in a fragmented way. Services provided to vulnerable children and families are currently regulated by three different ministries: the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, the Health Ministry, and the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry. According to the Czech organisation, this results in a large number of children being removed from their families and placed in institutions.
A draft law regulating foster care, protection for children’s rights and support for families which would have introduced the desired unification of this system was supposed to have been submitted in June 2015 but its entry into force has been postponed.
“They must not delay, because with the upcoming elections there is a danger that the essential unification will again be indefinitely postponed. In the interim, another generation of children will grow up unnecessarily institutionalised, children who could, if support was available, remain with their own families or at least be placed with adoptive or foster families,” said Radek Laci, Executive Director of Second After.
Read the full press release in English here.
